“The additional footage from 2001: A Space Odyssey has always existed in the Warner vaults. When [director Stanley] Kubrick trimmed the 17 minutes from 2001 after the NY premiere, he made it clear the shortened version was his final edit. The film is as he wanted it to be presented and preserved and Warner Home Video has no plans to expand or revise Mr. Kubrick’s vision.”

I think not just the first few days but only in a couple of cities. I saw it opening weekend in Kansas City and it must have been trimmed the week before when it was probably playing only in NY and LA, or something like that. I remember the photo ending quite clearly, and talking about what it meant after.

Weirdly, when I played it in 16mm in college the next year, it had been substantially trimmed after that for the non-theatrical market, for whatever reason, which caused a lot of upset because people thought we had cut it or something. I don't remember too much about that version other than that Anne Jackson's entire scene as the psychologist was gone. Since the other big part of the "non-theatrical" market besides colleges was prisons, I wonder if Kubrick recut it with some idea of what would be appropriate for prisoners, though why the psychologist scene would go is mysterious to me.

“I'm in favor of plagiarism. If we are to create a new Renaissance, the government should encourage plagiarism. When convinced that someone is a true plagiarist, we should immediately award them the Legion of Honor.” —Jean Renoir

The two movies have basically the same theme: lonely man hallucinates in vast empty space. Astronaut finds himself alone in space and sees visions of alien landscapes and artifacts (which may or may not be real). Writer finds himself alone in deserted hotel and sees dead people from the past.